California State University Monterey Bay’s Career Services, hosted a “How to Prepare for Management Opportunities” seminar on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
The event was hosted by Enterprise Holdings’ Talent Acquisition Manager, Stacey Caceres. Enterprise Holdings is an American private holding company.
The event was informational. It provided info and tips on how to score available job opportunities at Enterprise Holdings and the first portion of an interview for them.
Students were encouraged to introduce themselves and tell Caceres about their career background to get a foot in the door with Enterprise.
Caceres gave an inside look at how recruiters look over applications.
“Recruiters are looking at hundreds of resumes. It is just a quick scan to see if (an applicant) meets the minimum qualifications,” explained Caceres. “You might spend hours working on your resume, but on average, it’s only six seconds that a recruiter scans it.”
It is essential to keep your resume one page long. A second page is only appropriate if you are further along in your career.
“Try to keep it short and to the point,” said Caceres. “You want to include information that is immediately going to capture the recruiter’s attention. Your goal is to make your talents easily identifiable.”
Caceres explained skills should be at the top of your resume, followed by experience.
Cover letters should be considered a complement to a resume. Many job opportunities are now straying away from using cover letters. Only use a cover letter if it makes sense for the job you are applying to.
“At the end of the day, your cover letter should be personal and your resume should be factual,” said Caceres.
Caceres also offer advice on how to ace the interview portion of the process.
Aside from ensuring clean clothes, a professional appearance, good lighting and a quiet place for virtual interviews, Caceres also offered tips from a recruiter’s perspective.
“You want to assume that anyone and everyone you meet at the office or during the interview is important,” emphasized Caceres. “Don’t brush off the person at the front desk!”
During the interview, you want to highlight your skills by bringing up examples of leadership skills that you have used to create an impact in past experiences of your professional or educational career.
Caceres stated that for Enterprise, sales and customer service skills are the company’s lifeblood, so you should be prepared to offer many examples of how you have demonstrated these skills in your career.
She also emphasizes the importance of communication during the interview. Effectively communicate your skills and verbalize your wants and needs with the company.
Caceres also walked students through a “STAR” technique – standing for Situation, Task Action, Result – that Enterprise is fond of. This technique is for walking your interviewer through a story demonstrating your skills and experience.
In Situation, you set the scene by giving the interviewer a good level of context and background information.
“For example, a situation may revolve around an event set up to raise money for a charity,” explained Caceres. “This is your opportunity to lay the foundation for the story you are about to tell.”
In Task, you set the goal by explaining what your purpose was in the situation. Then you move to Action. This is where your skills shine through by describing how your leadership, communication, or other skills were utilized to solve the Task.
As a result, you explain your overall impact on the example you provided.
The STAR technique is best utilized for questions that follow the general syntax of “Tell me about a time you did x…” in interviews.
Caceres encouraged students to look into applying to Enterprise Holdings and welcomed them to reach out to her for resume and cover letter help as well as to get additional aid in applying to Enterprise.
For those interested in applying or learning more:
Enterprise Holdings: https://www.enterpriseholdings.com/en/index.html
Stacey Caceres: [email protected]